


Quiet Places

by cosmic_llin



Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: Backstory, Female Friendship, Gen, Refugees
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-14
Updated: 2015-07-14
Packaged: 2018-04-09 07:31:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4339502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmic_llin/pseuds/cosmic_llin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ro Laren discovers something that she and Guinan have in common.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Quiet Places

**Author's Note:**

  * For [smeggingaliens](https://archiveofourown.org/users/smeggingaliens/gifts).



Guinan watched Ro Laren scowl as she made her way through the crowds in Ten Forward. It was a good scowl - several of the Enterprise’s current guests and even a couple of crewmembers backed away as she passed.

She slid onto a stool by the bar.

‘Don’t even bother,’ she said to Guinan as she approached.

‘Bother with what?’ Guinan asked innocently. ‘You mean you don’t want to order a drink?’

‘Guinan...’ Laren rolled her eyes in a way that, for her, was almost affectionate.

‘So you _do_ want to order a drink?’

Laren actually grinned. ‘Yes please. Gimme… an Aldorian ale.’

‘Coming right up,’ said Guinan.

She got the drink, knowing without looking that Laren was hunched on the stool, arms tight across her chest, She put it down and watched her take a long sip.

She looked out at the rest of Ten Forward, crowded with the Selenian refugees the Enterprise was currently hosting. They all still looked shellshocked. Their colony had suffered a devastating natural disaster only a few days previously, and the Enterprise had been on the scene to help relocate the survivors. There were a thousand of them on the ship, crammed into every corner available. Some of the crew were camping in the arboretum to make extra space in the living quarters. Keiko had been in here earlier complaining about them trampling her seedlings.

‘Not so keen on the Selenians, huh?’ Guinan asked.

‘Guinan!’ Laren hissed. ‘They’ll hear you!’

‘You’ve been a walking frown since they got here.’

‘Yeah, but that’s not their fault. They just… make me uncomfortable. For personal reasons.’

‘The refugee thing?’

Laren winced like she’d been cut. ‘Yeah,’ she admitted.

‘I know,’ said Guinan. ‘Me too.’

Laren stopped short, her glass clanking against her teeth.

‘What do you mean?’

Guinan shrugged. ‘It was a long time ago.’

There was a silent moment.

‘I’m sorry,’ said Laren. ‘I didn’t know.’

Another silence. Laren drank some of her ale to cover her confusion.

‘Do you want to talk about it?’ she asked at last.

Guinan tilted her head, looked at Laren’s face for a moment.

‘Do you know,’ she said. ‘I do.’

* * *

Ro Laren had a knack for finding quiet places for thinking, even when the ship was filled with twice as many people as usual. She and Guinan and the bottle of Aldorian ale and two glasses made their way right down into the depths of the saucer section, where in a forgotten corner, a tiny portal looked out at the stars streaking behind them.

‘So, tell me,’ said Laren, pouring the drinks as Guinan took off her hat, laid it beside her and got comfortable leaning against a bulkhead.

‘The Borg came to my world, long before you were even born. I was already an adult, and I’d travelled so much that I’d lived other places more than I’d lived there, but losing it… it was like nothing I’d ever imagined.’

She took her drink from Laren’s hand and looked into her glass for a moment.

‘I was there when they came. We tried to fight, but you know how it is with the Borg. They just keep coming and coming. You can’t reason with them. They’re more like a disease than a people.’

She took a long, deep breath. ‘Anyway… once we understood that there was no saving our home, we scrambled into whatever ships we could and just kept going for as long as the engines would hold out. Eventually, after some… misadventures… I ended up in a Federation reception centre on Earth with around fifty others from my planet. They helped us find places to live, good therapists… things got better in the end. I know it hasn’t been quite so easy for displaced Bajorans.’

For Guinan, it wasn’t a particularly subtle change of subject, but Laren went with it anyway.

‘For me, getting to Earth was one of the hardest parts,’ she said. ‘I honestly didn’t expect to get into the Academy, and once I did, I didn’t know how to handle it. People look at you a certain way, when they see you’re a Bajoran. They make that weird pity face - I bet you know the one.’

‘Oh, I know it,’ said Guinan.

‘That or they stop talking when you walk by, or they bend over backwards to be kind to you even when you’re so rude that you don’t remotely deserve it.’

Guinan smirked.

‘I know, I know,’ Laren agreed. ‘I’m not the easiest to get along with. I made friends in the end, got through the Academy somehow. Even in the fleet though, people still make the face. And assumptions. For a lot of people I’m the first Bajoran they’ve ever met. Sometimes I’m just worn out with the effort of figuring out whether to bother defying people’s expectations. When people are looking for you to be the token Bajoran, it’s hard to be yourself.’

‘You see, that’s why it’s good to cultivate an aura of mystery,’ said Guinan, smiling. ‘If nobody knows where you’re from, nobody can leap to any conclusions about you. The popular rumour is still that I’m from Nova Kron. There’s a competing camp that swears I’m a Betazoid.’

‘Where _was_ your homeworld, Guinan?’ Laren asked.

‘El-Auria,’ she answered. ‘It was a beautiful world, before they came. But then, everyone thinks their world is beautiful.’

‘You know,’ said Laren, ‘I don’t really remember much about what Bajor looked like. They say it was very beautiful before the Cardassians ruined it.’

‘Think you’ll ever go back, now the Occupation’s over?’

Laren shrugged. ‘Someday, maybe. I guess I don’t feel like I have a right to be there any more. So many Bajorans stayed and fought the Cardassians. I just ran away.’

‘You were a child.’

‘And then, when I was an adult, I joined Starfleet instead of going back to help my people.’

Guinan tilted her head, looked at her.

‘I know. Don’t say any of it. I know. I guess it’s just… uncomfortable not to know. Whether or not it’ll feel like home after all this time.’

‘Only one way to find out.’

‘We’ll see. Someday. Don’t give me that knowing smile. Pour me another drink.’

‘Knowing smile? Me?’

Guinan topped up their glasses.

‘To Bajor,’ she said.

‘To El-Auria,’ said Laren, lifting her glass. ‘And… to the Selenian colony.’

 


End file.
